of small dimensions, mere poles, are frequently to be seen clogged with ivy almost to suffocation, and their growth and vigour appear to be impaired accordingly.

and he has "moralised this spectacle" into "" " simile a replete with instruction" of great pith and moment;" which the reader will find in his poem on Retirement, whence the lines above are taken.

An instance of the fact which these lines describe, also, exists hard by the office of this Magazine. Mr. Loudon, in 1824, planted, in a shrubbery in his garden, a cherry tree, and at its foot a honeysuckle : both have since grown, and still are growing, together. The stem of the honeysuckle is spirally coiled about the stem of the cherry tree; and so much straitened into its bark and wood, as to be, in some of the coils, not only not prominent or in the least relief, but is even beneath the surface of the bark of the cherry tree, from the bark of the cherry tree's having risen up on each side of the constriction in the manner the ash tree's wood and bark had risen above the constricting branches of the ivy. The result of the progressive strangulation is, in conjunction with the cherry tree's being too much invaded by the shrubs about it, that, although it has been planted nine years, the stem of the cherry tree, at 3 in. from the ground, does not measure quite 9 in. in circumference; and the honeysuckle, at the same place, not more than 3 in. in circumference.

As another instance, I may mention that, in the old botanic garden at Bury St. Edmunds, an individual, of some little age, of that most interesting plant the Períploca græ'ca L., whose pertinacity in twining is meant to be expressed in the word Períploca, was implanted at the foot of a young, healthy, and vigorously growing western plane tree (Plátanus occidentalis L.). Both grew rapidly; and, in three or four years, the Períploca græ'ca had insculptured a deep and deforming spiral groove in the plane tree's trunk, from near the ground to the setting off of the spreading branches which form the umbrageous head of this large-leaved pleasing species of tree. I say a deforming groove, because, in the spaces between the coils of the groove, the plane tree's trunk had swollen out, and so had been deprived of that graceful tapering form which otherwise would have accrued to it. The stem of the Periploca græ'ca was, in the end, unless I am mistaken, broken transversely in two by the resistless increase in the diameter of the young plane tree's growing trunk.

On the instances of this natural insculpturing, as it may be called, which the woods, groves, and hedgerows occasionally supply, it may be noticed that they are usually appropriated and much prized by the tasteful in rustic matters, as eligible for walking-sticks, whip-handles, &c. These, it would appear, will oftener occur in such kinds of wood as maple, elm, ash, and beech: to these kinds may be added birch and hazel, and probably any other species of wood with which the twining shrub may happen to grow in contact. In gardens, the result seems effectible on any tree or shrub to which we may please to appose the twining shrub.

True, then, although it is, as shown above, that twining shrubs effect more or less of injurious strangulation on the stems, boughs, and branches of the trees and shrubs they entwine, it is also true that they must ever be present in every well-furnished tastefully decorated flower-garden. No plants are more elegant, graceful, ornamental: and the notable flexibility of their twining shoots, while these are young and tender, allows us to lead them whither we will,

"To deck the wall or weave the bower." Cotton. For such purposes of decoration, climbers will be added: these climb by

But, to return to the aged and prostrate ash: round one half of its trunk (as I have often been told) had formerly been fixed a semicircular bench, of which, however, no trace remained since my recollection, save the seat-handles, as they may be called, consisting of two pieces of oak timber 1 ft. in length, carved at the end in rude imitation of the elbows of a chair, and let into the living wood, one on each side of the tree, to serve the purpose of a back-rest to the seat. As the tree had increased considerably in circumference since this barbarous treatment had been practised upon it, the living wood had, of course, closed in upon, and partially overgrown, these chair-handles, which consequently became more firmly fixed and deeply embedded by every succeeding year's growth. On the breaking up of the but, I was surprised to find that the portion of these oaken handles which was enclosed within the live timber was, for the most part, in a state of complete decay, while that which was without, and had been exposed all along to the action of the elements, was still sound and solid. Hence it would appear that the sap, or internal moisture, of a tree effects the decay of extraneous timber artificially brought into contact with it, far more powerfully than do the ordinary alternations of heat and cold, drought and moisture.

The trunk of the ash, for about the first 18 ft. (i. e. up to the place where it appeared to have been pollarded), was hollow, and decayed at the centre, and afforded some twenty or thirty good barrow loads of rotten wood, which, in the course of another year, when it becomes more completely "wroxed," will be very serviceable for horticultural purposes.

Dórcus parallelipipedus Stephens, and Sinodéndron cylíndricum Stephens. Throughout this carious portion of the tree there occurred numerous specimens, both in the larva and the perfect state, of the lesser stag-beetle (Dórcus [dorkos, a stag; from the mandibles resembling antlers] parallelipipedus

"clasping tendrils," and do not constrain, although occasionally they do some injury by choking and destroying the foliage of the plants up and over which they climb. Cowper, on climbers, has thus elegantly written :"[Some clothe the soil that feeds them, far diffused And lowly creeping, modest and yet fair, Like virtue, thriving most where little seen :] Some, more aspiring, catch the neighbour shrub With clasping tendrils, and invest his branch, Else unadorned, with many a gay festoon And fragrant chaplet, recompensing well

The strength they borrow with the grace they lend."

Cowper's "Garden." — J. D.

-

a

43

b

a

44

a, Male; b, female; d, larva.

produced from it; being nearly equal in size to the cockchafer grub, which it very much resembles, except that, instead of being, like that, of a cream colour, it is rather of a bluer white. In placing some of these larvæ in spirits of wine for preservation, I observed a black mark soon make its appearance immediately below the back of the head: from a small spot it gradually increased, pervading the rest of the body, till the whole grub became a, Female; b, male. of the same uniform dark colour. Dórcus parallelipipedus and Sinodéndron cylindricum are the usual inhabitants of the interior of decayed ash trees, dwelling together promiscuously, and, as it should seem, in perfect harmony and good will.

They who have paid no attention, or but little, to the habits of insects, on inspecting such a vegetable ruin as the one I am speaking of, might naturally enough, in the first instance, feel disposed to attribute the decay of the tree, in part at least, to the insects which abounded within it. For, whenever any mischief or injury takes place, the animals, whether quadrupeds, birds, or insects, detected near the scene of action, are pretty sure to be made the blame-bearers by the ignorant and less informed, and to be treated accordingly. The small stag-beetle, however, and its congener, the Sinodéndron, like the woodpeckers, I am satisfied, commit no injury on the living or sound wood; attacking such only as they already find far gone in a state of decay, which, in the present instance, they had perforated in all directions. Many were found pursuing their occupations in the decayed timber, at the distance of 18 ft. from the ground; to which height

they must have worked their way from the bottom. May not

the

Woodpeckers bore into decayed trees, for the double purpose both of forming a suitable situation for making their nests, and also of feeding on these and similar insects to be found therein? Should the bird, while working out its habitation, chance to meet one of the fat grubs of the Dórcus or Sinodéndron, it would, no doubt, afford him a rich and delicious morsel.

Several species of the feathered race will have cause, no less than the proprietor himself, to lament the loss of this aged tree.

The Rooks, indeed, never, to my knowledge, occupied it, though they built in several adjoining trees of no greater altitude, and much smaller dimensions. These birds appear to be capricious in their choice of a situation*; and as it is difficult to induce them to take to trees which they do not freely, and of their own accord, select for the purpose of nidification+, so neither is it easy to expel them from such as they have voluntarily selected.

The Starlings usually found suitable accommodation for themselves in some of the deep nooks and interstices formed by the interlacing stems of the ivy; and, like their favoured kindred at Walton Hall ‡, were allowed to rear their broods in peace and security. A pair of

Stockdoves §, or at least of some species of wild pigeon, annually occupied the shelf-like entrance of a cavity occasioned by the rupture of a large horizontal arm, which had been

* Not a single rook's nest was completed last spring in the group of elms situated near the south-west angle of the church, though many were begun, and pulled to pieces, and begun again, and the trees themselves had for many years been a favourite resort of the birds. The spring before (1831), there had been a rather unusually large number of nests in the same group.

+ I have been informed, but cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that the readiest way to establish a rookery where one did not previously exist, is to withdraw the eggs from the nest of a magpie that is about to sit, and has built near the place where it is wished the new colony should be raised, and to substitute in their room the eggs of the rook. The young birds, it is said, will return the following spring, and take up their quarters in the same tree in which they were reared.

See an interesting article in defence of this bird's harmless character, by C. Waterton, Esq., p. 37.

Without having particularly attended to them, I had supposed these pigeons to have been the common wood-pigeon, or queest; but, since the fall of the tree (which happened to start conversation on the subject), I have been assured by an intelligent domestic that they were not woodpigeons, but stockdoves. If this information be correct, it adds a new bird to our parish Fauna: I was not previously aware that the last-named species occurred in this neighbourhood.

There they con

broken close to the main stem of the tree. structed their scanty nest, laid their eggs, and hatched them without molestation from the starlings, who (be it remembered), dwelling in the same tree, and engaged in a like occupation, must, no doubt, have found it extremely convenient to have had a supply of pigeons' eggs so near at hand, if they, poor birds! had really so strong a partiality for such food, as is sometimes (unjustly, I think) attributed to them.

*

The Nuthatch, too, (I don't know where he built his nest, but he) found it, if I may use the expression, a most convenient set of vices in the chinks and crannies of the ash bark, wherein to fix the stones of haws, nuts, &c., while he worked away with his beak, and jobbed out the kernels. The crevices of the bark, on the only portion of the tree's trunk which was not sheathed with ivy, were frequently to be seen copiously charged with the refuse of emptied shells, in evidence of this bird's power of bill. But I must refrain; having already trespassed too long on your patience, and being apprehensive withal lest you may think these gossiping remarks about a rotten old ash tree unworthy of your notice. I beg, therefore, that you will use your own discretion on the propriety of presenting them to your readers; and will only add that, should you think them fit to occupy a corner in your Magazine, you are at full liberty to place at the head of the article the same quaint title that Izaak Walton has affixed to the 16th chapter of his Angler, which, says he, " is of nothing, or that which is nothing worth.” I am, Sir, yours, &c.

Allesley Rectory, Jan. 16. 1833.

ART. VII.

W. T. BREE.

Observations on the supposed Connection of Rocks with Plants. By ALEXANDER MURRAY, M.D. and A.M., Aberdeen. [THE Scope of the following article is the same as one, also by Dr. Murray, published in Professor Jameson's Journal for July, 1831; but the article is essentially different, a few sentences only being common to the two. In the present communication there is a list of Aberdeenshire plants, contained in various important families: a feature of some interest, as no allusion has ever before been made in print to any portion of the flora of that county. The plants quoted in Jameson's Journal relate to a limited tract. In the present list will be found Scílla vérna and Rhodiola ròsea, which, till lately, were not supposed to be natives of the east coast of ** Nutjobber" is one of the provincial names of the bird.